What do you know today that you didn't know yesterday?

[BrianSoddingBoru4]

The word 'helicopter' is often and erroneously divided into 'heli' and 'copter'. It's actually formed from the Greek roots helico (spiral) and pter 'wing').

Boru

[Rev. Rye]

Aaron Copland's "Hoedown" (aka: the "Beef: It's What's For Dinner" music) was based on a folk song called "Bonaparte's Retreat". Specifically, this recording (by William H. Stepp, recorded by Alan Lomax). Apparently, Pete Seeger's mother gave him the recording and he used it.




And then it became this:

[onlinebiker]

The word 'helicopter' is often and erroneously divided into 'heli' and 'copter'. It's actually formed from the Greek roots helico (spiral) and pter 'wing').

Boru

Except in "pilotspeak" - spiral is associated with crashing.

I.e. "He got his tail shot off and he spiraled in."
....

So probably not a good choice...

[BrianSoddingBoru4]

The word 'helicopter' is often and erroneously divided into 'heli' and 'copter'. It's actually formed from the Greek roots helico (spiral) and pter 'wing').

Boru

Except in "pilotspeak" - spiral is associated with crashing.

I.e. "He got his tail shot off and he spiraled in."
....

So probably not a good choice...

I’m happy to see you grasp that the same word can have more than one meaning. Baby steps.

Boru

[arewethereyet]

Figured out why my laptop is acting stupid. The damn battery died. Found a repair place and have one ordered that should be in on Thursday.

Means I have to work at the office tomorrow. That's gonna suck.

[Anomalocaris]

On the subject of pter,   Pterodactyl, from Greek for wing finger, is not a flying dinosaur like many people think because it is not a dinosaur at all, although it is reasonable closely related to dinosaurs.

Also, most of what many people mistakenly think of as flying dinosaurs and call pterodactyls are not pterodactyls because pterodactyl refer to just a one genus out of many of flying reptile, and there is only one known specie within the pterodactyl genus.

Rather the larger group of flying reptiles distantly related to dinosaurs is called, appropriately, Pterosaurs. 

The largest pterosaur is the size of a giraffe, but being light boned, probably weighed only 500 lbs or so.

[Rev. Rye]

Last night, I went to a concert at Ravinia, and the pianist played Beethoven's "Hammerklavier" sonata and, before he started out, he talked a bit about how he preferred to keep to Beethoven's marked tempos, even if 138 BPM for the Hammerklavier might not be practical for most pianists. Indeed, it's impractical enough that the first video I found that played it at that tempo had to be sped up to reach that point:




Then I looked into the controversy, about how people were wondering how Beethoven's metronome could potentially have been defective, like maybe it was reading 138 BPM, but beating at a slower beat. They found the metronome, but parts were missing and the results were inconclusive. But it turns out that on the very first page of his manuscript for The Ninth, he might have put a clue that points to a simpler explanation: he didn't know whether to



Admittedly I'm not sure how true this is, or what this would make the proper tempo of the Hammerklavier (I suspect that, with the 10/9 ratio of tempi, it'd be closer to 124 BPM, which is probably more doable.)

[Silver]

That there's a Stool Chart

[BrianSoddingBoru4]

On the subject of pter,   Pterodactyl, from Greek for wing finger, is not a flying dinosaur like many people think because it is not a dinosaur at all, although it is reasonable closely related to dinosaurs.

Also, most of what many people mistakenly think of as flying dinosaurs and call pterodactyls are not pterodactyls because pterodactyl refer to just a one genus out of many of flying reptile, and there is only one known specie species within the pterodactyl genus.

Rather the larger group of flying reptiles distantly related to dinosaurs is called, appropriately, Pterosaurs. 

The largest pterosaur is the size of a giraffe, but being light boned, probably weighed only 500 lbs or so.

FTFY.

Boru

[Anomalocaris]

Last night, I went to a concert at Ravinia, and the pianist played Beethoven's "Hammerklavier" sonata and, before he started out, he talked a bit about how he preferred to keep to Beethoven's marked tempos, even if 138 BPM for the Hammerklavier might not be practical for most pianists. Indeed, it's impractical enough that the first video I found that played it at that tempo had to be sped up to reach that point:




Then I looked into the controversy, about how people were wondering how Beethoven's metronome could potentially have been defective, like maybe it was reading 138 BPM, but beating at a slower beat. They found the metronome, but parts were missing and the results were inconclusive. But it turns out that on the very first page of his manuscript for The Ninth, he might have put a clue that points to a simpler explanation: he didn't know whether to



Admittedly I'm not sure how true this is, or what this would make the proper tempo of the Hammerklavier (I suspect that, with the 10/9 ratio of tempi, it'd be closer to 124 BPM, which is probably more doable.)

not being able to play any instruments, It seems to me Beethoven’s appassionata piano sonata is way way faster than that.